


The End  of the World

by Sher_Indigo



Series: S.P.E.C.I.A.L [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Domestic Abuse psychological, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, post-motherhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 08:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14613708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sher_Indigo/pseuds/Sher_Indigo
Summary: I always promised I wouldn't do this - write the whole beginning of game thing, that is.  However, it is my own twist on the old chestnut and does help me with the longer piece!This is my rehash of at least some of the opening sequences of the game.  The first time I played through Fallout 4 I did feel quite a visceral reaction to the sight of that mushroom cloud.  Hope I can at least convey that in some way :)Oh, and there is some bad language just to warn anyone that might be offended.  I just tried to describe what folks might say when the sirens went off!





	The End  of the World

**Author's Note:**

> I’m trying here to put my own twist on the pre-war scenes and give a sense of what Eva was before the war, both without giving too much away but at the same time trying to give a sense of what was going on pre-war! Urgh, this is difficult!

“I thought we could go out to the park later.” Nate said smoothly. He was in a good mood and that usually meant trouble for her in some way.

“Why?” She blurted and cursed herself for leaving her thoughts so close to the surface, she knew better than that. He shifted his stance and regarded her coolly. She backtracked and added, “Its just that there’s so much preparation to be done for Halloween, you know what the neighbours are expecting - pumpkins everywhere and if I don’t get a move on there will be none left in the store.”

The anger she had watched rise within him abated and she gave an inward sigh of relief. Keeping his volatility on an even keel was more than a full time job. “Ah, I see. Indeed, we can’t be seen to be letting the side down now, can we!” His tone was jovial, but she still caught the warning there: if the neighbours were disappointed with their display, she would only have herself to blame. “Pity.” He turned and scooped Shaun up out of his crib. Both her heart and her womb clenched in dismay. Nate never picked up Shaun unless there were witnesses as to how great a father he was, or he was trying to threaten her. Her breath had stilled in her chest. She could swear even her heart had ceased beating. He flicked his gaze over her body, looking faintly disgusted. “I had plans for us in the park. Mother had said that we should probably strike while the iron was hot, so to speak, and start thinking about a sibling for young Shaun here.” Shaun burbled happily as his father tickled his tummy, utterly oblivious to the sudden icy chill in the room. Oh, of course, if ‘Mother’ had said so then it must be done. He would never willingly touch her otherwise, unless in punishment. Why had he married her again? She wondered for the millionth time. Oh yeah, because she was a freak who nobody else would want and she was lucky that he was prepared to offer her this lifeline. She gave him a watery smile that had no conviction behind it. “Oh! What a shame. Perhaps we could do that after Halloween?”

He narrowed his eyes and moved to put Shaun back in the crib again. “Perhaps.” He agreed. There was a sudden clanking outside the nursery door that Nate had shut after him when he’d followed her in. “Fuck’s sake, Eva, would you keep that damn robot on a leash or something? I swear I’ll have it melted for scrap one of these days.”

She shuddered. There it was, her other point of weakness.

“Mum…sir?” Codsworth called out uncertainly. 

“What the fuck is it?” Nate snapped, “We’re trying to have family time in here.”

“Sorry, sir,” The Mr Handy sounded as defeated as she felt. “I don’t mean to intrude, but something is happening, I think you both should come and look.”

Nate snarled and stamped out of the room, all but flinging his carefully bundled son over his shoulder in his ire. Eva trailed after him helplessly, prepared to catch her baby in the event that Nate forgot that he even carried an infant in his arms. Codsworth swivelled his eyes to her. She gave him a grim smile and put a finger to her lips. 

Her husband was prepared to rage at both her and the robot but was quickly driven into silence at the words the news anchor was reading gravely from his notes. It took her a moment to realise that this was not just an announcement about some disaster happening somewhere else, somewhere far away, that of course concerned her, she could always feel these things. Her fear and her focus on her husband and her son had rendered her senses dull for a time, but they were returning and she briefly wished for that distance back. New York? Washington DC? London? Beijing? Nairobi… My god, it was happening everywhere. Just as she was processing this the sirens started and her blood ran cold. Nate swallowed and glanced at her, for once something bigger than him was happening and he looked scared. “We’d better get to the vault. I’ve got Shaun, we need to leave right now.”

She wasn’t about to argue. Without any further thought they left their house and were immediately confronted by chaos. The sirens were deafening, people were shouting. Screaming. Neighbours who would normally have had something to say as they passed by were utterly focused on their own problems, some standing over suitcases and arguing whether they should take the camera or try to pack up the home computer. She wanted to scream the last words the friendly Vault-Tec Rep had said to her before he’d left their doorstep only a few days ago: “God forbid we should hear those sirens, but if you do, just run to the vault - ya hear me? Don’t stop to pick up anything. If you ain’t already carrying it, forget about it, just get to that vault…”

Nate was running ahead, still carrying Shaun. For once his selfishness was a good thing. She picked up her pace after him but must have overtaken him as she was alone when she reached yet more chaos at the fence surrounding the vault. She quailed at the hovering Vertibird and the soldiers in their Powersuits wielding miniguns at the panicked citizens of Sanctuary Hills. “If you’re not on the list, you’re not coming in.” Barked an officer brandishing a clipboard.

“But I AM Vault-Tec!” Screamed a familiar voice. 

The hairs on her neck prickled. Surely not… but it was him - her Vault-Tec Rep - and they…weren’t letting him in… surely there must be some mistake. “He’s our Rep!” She yelled over the din, “He must have a place!” a minigun was leveled at her. She held her hands up.

The officer regarded her impassively and waved his clipboard, “He isn’t on the list. What about you?”

“Yes!… yes.” She glanced at the terrified rep apologetically. She heard panting and footfalls and knew Nate had finally arrived. “He signed us up - Rutherford, Nate, Eva and Shaun.”

The officer scanned his list. “Two adults, one infant, right you are: proceed.”

Nate pushed past her and dashed towards the elevator that would take them down into the Vault. Other neighbours were already huddled there, terrified. For once she didn’t mind getting shoved around by Nate. Nate was carrying Shaun and he was more important than either of them. Hopefully if their son could make it into the vault he’d have a good chance…better than any of them, surely.

Mrs Able was weeping uncontrollably as she reached the elevator. Her husband trying desperately to console her, but it was no good. There were no platitudes for this. The heavy machinery of the elevator rumbled to life and began to move down. Suddenly there was a massive, blinding flash of light to the south. No other sound for a couple of seconds, just intense light before that terrible sound as if the Earth itself were a gong and had just been struck.

She glimpsed the deadly mushroom cloud, only ever described in books and holotapes, but there, rising miles into the sky as the elevator descended was the thing that had only ever been whispered about as an impossible nightmare. They all ducked down instinctively before the debris-laden hurricane blast swept over the once peaceful suburb.

As she emerged into an underground realm of metal, pipes and people in blue skin-tight suits she realised that this was it - this was the world now. She swallowed and glanced towards Nate, who met her gaze, equally terrified. This was not quite the equaliser she had envisaged, but it would have to do. “Is Shaun OK?” She asked. 

Nate checked the bundle he had reflexively clung onto and smiled. “He’s fine.”

It didn’t matter that they’d been at war since he’d discovered her secret, familiarity gave them comradeship in this new and unfamiliar situation. They gravitated towards one another and approached the next clip-board wielder together.

“Up there.” They were told. “Get your vault suits and see the Vault Doctor. Welcome to Vault 111.”

Would they have one that would fit Shaun? Or Mrs Prentice? She thought abstractedly as she passed by the very large, sobbing woman on their way up the metal stairs.

“So… this is our life now.” Nate muttered distantly. He looked as lost as she felt and wondered if it took the end of the world for them to reclaim their childhood friendship, before he’d found out and before he’d brought her into his family. He glanced down at her and gave her a calculating smile. Maybe not, she decided.

They were given a sterile looking packet containing a blue suit each, except for Shaun who was apparently allowed to remain in his nappy, rocket covered cozy sleepsuit and blanket. Another official waved them towards the doctor. Medical checks, yeah, that makes sense, she thought but her instincts were clamouring at her that something was wrong, very, very wrong. She put it down to the fact that Nuclear Armageddon had just happened and dismissed them.

She stuck close to her husband as they were shuffled down a corridor flanked with strange metal ‘pods’ that nobody seemed to know the purpose of. Nate’s usual belligerence could have been useful. In any other circumstance he’d have been up in somebody’s face demanding to speak to a superior and did anyone know who his mother was? There’d be hell to pay if she found out about any of this etc. Etc. But, he was struck dumb and merely watched while she removed her dress and struggled into the blue vault suit, desperately uncomfortable as she was not only suprvised by Nate but also the doctor, not to mention anyone else who happened to be passing by. This didn’t feel like what was supposed to happen - surely there should be private changing rooms or something - but again she dismissed her misgivings as part of the whole urgency of the situation. The world as everyone knew it had potentially come to an abrupt end.

She felt like the freak Nate always called her as her swollen breasts decided to start leaking all over her bra. As if scenting her milk and knowing he wasn’t allowed it anymore, Shaun started to wail. The doctor continued to watch her and her spine crawled. She hauled the suit over her shoulders and zipped it up her front, her breasts complaining at being confined in the tight fabric. She worried that the moisture would spread dark over her chest but the suit seemed to cater for that. She went over to comfort her caterwauling son, whose tiny fists were bunched up and his little face a picture of personal frustration. “Hey there, sweetie,” she cooed, reaching out to touch her distressed baby. Nate, with a smirk, turned away, removing her baby from her attentions. 

“You first, dear.” He said coldly. The doctor probably hadn’t even noticed the subtext of this exchange. She would go through this “De-Contamination” first. She was expendable after all. The son and grandson of Christine Rutherford were not.

She wished for Codsworth, her only ally in all the world and felt a wave of sadness at the realisation that he had most likely been blown to bits in the debris storm. Personal robots were allowed in the vault, apparently, but the Vault-Tec Rep had checked his clip-board and informed her sadly that no provision had been made for the family robot. Because he was hers, she knew.

Dammit.

She glanced back at her son, held against her enemy’s chest and knew this was it for her. This was her life.

At least it was over now, she thought, and almost smiled as the lid of the De-Contamination pod came down.


End file.
